September 7, 2004—It is well-known to those following developments in RFID that the pharmaceutical industry is rapidly adopting the technology as a means to curb theft, prevent counterfeiting, and streamline recalls. Radio frequency identification even got a very public endorsement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who in February encouraged pharmaceutical companies to employ RFID tagging. But what might not be so well-known is the skepticism by some groups as to the FDA's and pharmaceutical's true motives. They believe that the RFID initiative might be a protectionist technique to hamper the $1 billion dollars worth of drugs imported annually from Canada.